POWER & CONTROL WHEELS

TESTIMONIALS

Hi all our street appeal is happening on Wednesday the 30th August all day, We are looking for support in the form of donations and also volunteers to help on the day. If you want to offer some support please contact us using the contact tab on our website, calling 0800 474 1121 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Stopping Violence Dunedin would like to take the time to acknowledge Otago community trust for its ongoing and generous support in helping fund our programmes and other support services, without help from organisations such as this one Stopping Violence Dunedin could not continue supporting the community in the way we do. A big thank you from the team at Stopping Violence Dunedin and everyone we support.

Have your say on further changes to protect domestic violence victims in the workplace The bill proposes changes to workplace laws, to better protect victims of domestic violence.
Submissions can be made HERE

What is the bill about?

The Family and Whānau Violence Legislation Bill would implement the Government’s “Safer Sooner reforms” policy announced in September 2016. It proposes a raft of changes to the Domestic Violence Act (and other related Acts), with a focus on:

getting help to those in need without them necessarily having to go to court

ensuring all family violence is clearly identified and risk information is properly shared

putting the safety of victims at the heart of bail decisions

creating new offences of strangulation, coercion to marry, and assault on a family member

making evidence gathering in family violence cases easier for Police and less traumatic for victims

making it easier to apply for a Protection Order

making offending while on a Protection Order a specific aggravating factor in sentencing

supporting an effective system of information sharing across all those dealing with family violence

enabling the setting of codes of practice across the sector

What does the bill do?

The bill proposes extensive changes to the Domestic Violence Act 1995. These include, among other things:

renaming the Act to Family and Whānau Violence Act 1995

changing references to “domestic violence” to “family violence”

extending what constitutes psychological abuse

making it easier for children to apply for protection orders

making it easier to enforce protection orders overseas and foreign protection orders

clarifying definitions of “programmes” and “prescribed services”

The Crimes Act 1961 would also be amended, in order to provide for several new offences:

strangulation or suffocation (up to 7 years’ imprisonment)

assault on a person in a family relationship (up to 2 years’ imprisonment)

coerced marriage or civil union (up to 5 years imprisonment)

abduction for purposes of marriage or civil union or sexual connection (up to 14 years imprisonment)

The bill also seeks to amend the Bail Act 2000, Care of Children Act 2004, Criminal Procedure Act 2011, Evidence Act 2006, and Sentencing Act 2002. In total, it would make consequential changes to more than thirty pieces of law.

Who might this bill affect?

victims of family violence

perpetrators of family violence

support services for victims of family violence

administrators of non-violence programmes and prescribed services

What happens next?

The bill was introduced on 15 March 2017 and is set down for first reading.

New Zealands domestic violence laws are going to get updated by the Minister for Justice Amy Adams and the national government. They are looking at issues such as better information sharing between agencies like Stopping Violence Dunedin and stricter regulations for perpetrators. The aim of the reform is to better protect victims of domestic violence.

We will be interested as an agency to see how this will affect us and how it will affect our service delivery to our clients and the wider community.

Stopping Violence Dunedin won the City of Literature award for Stories to Heal Violence on Sunday the 19th of March. We are absolutely delighted and we would like to thank that public for their support for us in our invovment in the Fringe Festival. It's been amazing!

Thanks again for your support and thanks to our sponsors for making the show possible. We really appreciate it.

Thank you so much to all the members of the public who supported our shows as part of the Fringe Festival Dunedin 2017. This is not the end of Stories to Heal Violence but only the beginning of an amazing opportunity which lies before us.

We would like to thank and congratulate the cast and crew on an amazing show.

We would also like to thank all our major sponsors and Josh Thomas Dunedin Fringe Director for their amazing support over the last few months.

The ODT came out with two articles today, relating to the issue of family violence. The articles feature comments from our Manager and DCAFV coorindator. They are an interesting read. The links are below for those interested.

For the first time ever in Stopping Violence's 31-year history, we will be a part of the Dunedin Fringe Festival for 2017. We are putting on a verbatim play called Stories to Heal Violence, which will be held at the Athenaeum, located at 24 the Octagon, on the 16th, 17th & 18th of March. Doors open at 7pm and the performance lasts from 7.30pm - 8.30pm.

This production looks at Dunedin's high rate of family violence and highlights the changes that clients of Stopping Violence Dunedin have experienced, in an honest and artistically creative portrayal. This plants the seed that as a community we can support each other in creating change. The project will honour the stories told by real people, and their bravery in wanting not only to change, but to make a difference for their children, families and the wider community.

Initiate an independent inquiry into the abuse of people held in State care in order to identify the systemic issues that permitted this to occur and the broader impact of these events on our communities;

Publicly apologise to those who were affected, including those who were abused, their families and whanau.

take other appropriate steps to acknowledge the harm that has been caused to the victims and to provide them with appropriate redress and rehabilitation; and

Take action to ensure this never happens again.

We know from their stories that many New Zealanders who were placed in government institutions suffered sexual, physical and psychological abuse inflicted by staff, social workers, caregivers, teachers, clergy, cooks, gardeners, night watchmen and even other children and patients. We suspect that institutional abuse has had a disproportionately negative impact on Māori and disabled people, including those with intellectual/learning disabilities. We are yet to establish this with certainty because of the difficulty obtaining relevant data and information.

It is important to determine the full extent and nature of the abuse that occurred. We must understand what took place and learn how and why vulnerable children, teenagers and adults could be abused within the system that was supposed to care for them. Until we know the full story and until we have the answers to these questions, we are not in a position to learn from what happened and to prevent it from happening again.

Although steps have been taken to provide resolution for some individuals through existing claims processes, these processes do not address the underlying systemic questions and do not help us ensure that events like this are prevented from occurring again in future. The intention is not to relitigate the past or to usurp existing settlements – it is to find the truth and make changes for the benefit of the next generation.

Some New Zealanders who have survived abuse while in State care have told us they want an apology, accountability and, most of all, they want decision makers to learn from the past and to ensure that future generations do not suffer as they did.

What needs to happen?

We want the Government to ensure that:

The voices of those abused while in State care are heard, and the ongoing impact the events have had on their lives is understood and acknowledged

There is official acknowledgement of the abuse that occurred

A general public apology is provided to all those affected, including an apology for any systemic failings of past governments

The experiences of those who have been affected are recognised and validated

The full impact on disabled people, including those with intellectual and learning disabilities, is identified and recognised

The impact on Māori, of both prevalence of placement in State care and incidence of abuse is adequately assessed and considered

Effective and adequate support is provided for those who have been affected

Lessons are learned from the past and action is taken, to prevent future abuse so that this never happens again.

What should be considered?

There are many ways to ensure that the above outcomes are realised. One of these is through an independent inquiry which should consider the following matters:

The treatment of children, young people and vulnerable adults in State care in psychiatric and psychopaedic hospitals and wards, health camps, child welfare care, youth justice facilities and special education homes

The extent of physical, sexual, psychological abuse and of neglect experienced while in State care

The impact on individuals and groups of the processes that placed people in State care, including those in foster care and other environments outside State run facilities

The adequacy of laws, policies and practices of the day in protecting those placed in State care from abuse and any systemic issues arising from this consideration

Whether, at a systemic level, complaints of abuse have been sufficiently and appropriately dealt with by other official responses, investigations or criminal or civil proceedings.

Action sought

We, the undersigned, call on the Government to initiate a robust and independent inquiry into the above matters and to take other appropriate steps to ensure that the victims of abuse receive a comprehensive public apology and appropriate redress for what took place. We seek urgent engagement with the Government to discuss the process and methodology in more detail. It is important for all New Zealanders to understand the full extent of what took place and to work together to prevent future abuse of people while in the care of the State. Action is required now.

The Innercity Women Group have recetnly launched the 1 in 3 be Free app. The initial assessment tool is a quiz type tool, that has 23 questions that you can answer Yes or No. depending on your answers it will give you an overview on how your relationship appears through the Duluth Power and Control wheels.

It gives you a list of local and national website links and numbers for you to get help.